New Policy Ideas for a New World: Interview with Robert Solow

There has been plenty of reflection, during the past few years, on the causes of the global financial crisis. But, last month’s conference at the IMF focused on taking what we’ve learned from the crisis and looking toward the future of economic policy.

Robert Solow—Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Nobel Prize winning economist—was among those who brought interesting perspectives and a wealth of experience to the conference discussions.

Watch Professor Solow’s interview and hear more about what he has to say on…

…the main challenges for policymakers today…

…the importance of restoring a higher level of economic activity in the advanced countries—particularly in this country, in the U.S.—and the fact that there will have to be some innovative approaches to policy.

…on monetary policy…

The simple dependence on conventional monetary policy—not to be abandoned, of course—but it seems to have come to its limits and one has to move on even to direct fiscal policy or to innovative ways of dealing with money and credit.

…on fiscal policy…

We are certainly not at the limits of the possibility of public debt … But any aggressive fiscal policy would entail still a bigger buildup of debt, which will have to be settled in the longer run.

And, on the role of education in economic growth…

We tend to measure education by input, not output. We count how many years people have been in school … instead of worrying so much about quantities of education, we ought to be thinking about the content.